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EAMES 
Description  of  a  wood  eneTaving 

illustratincr  the  South  American  Indians, 


Description  of  a    Wood  Engraving 

Illustrating  the 

South  American  Indians 

C1505) 


By 

Wilberforce    Eames 


(X/JI^UWiH\/^^t  ^ 


The   New    York 

Public  Library 

ig22 


Description  of  a    Wood  Engraving 

Illustrating  the 

South  American  Indians 

(1505) 


By 
Wilberforce    Karnes 


The    New    York 

Public  Library 

ig22 


REPRINTED  OCTOBER  1922 

FROM  THE 

BULLETIN   OF  THE   NEW  YORK   PUBLIC   LIBRARY 

OF  SEPTEMBER    1922 


PRINTED  AT  THE   NEW  YORK  PUBLIC   LIBRARY 

form  p-ies  [x-i8-22  3c] 


LIBRAEY 

_  ,  u...  >;«■■■'     V  OF  CAT JFORNIA 

6  y   7  '  SANTA  BARBARA 

DESCRIPTION    OF    A    WOOD    ENGRAVING    ILLUSTRATING 
THE  SOUTH   AMERICAN   INDIANS 

(1505) 


By   Wilberforce   Eames 

Bibliographer  of  the  Library 


THE  recent  discovery  of  an  extraordinary  specimen  of  early  Americana, 
after  a  disappearance  of  fifty-eight  years,  discloses  an  interesting  story, 
perhaps  unique  in  the  history  of  print  collecting.  In  preparing  for  the  sale 
of  a  further  portion  of  the  manuscripts  and  books  of  the  late  Sir  Thomas 
Phillipps,  beginning  on  Tuesday,  June  24th,  1919,  at  the  auction  rooms 
of  Messrs.  Sotheby,  Wilkinson  &  Hodge,  in  London,  there  was  brought  to 
light  again  a  woodcut  print  of  remarkable  interest,  which  is  described  in  lot 
57  of  the  catalogue  as  a  "Unique  Copy  of  the  Earliest  Xylographic 
Picture  Relating  to  America  that  is  Known.''  The  note  of  the  cata- 
loguer, who  ascribes  the  printing  to  Augsburg,  circa  1500,  states  that: 

"It  is  a  large  wood  engraving,  measuring  133^  inches  by  8j4 
inches,  representing  savages  of  Brazil  (a  country  just  then  dis- 
covered) in  a  hut  with  their  wives  and  children,  dressed  in  their 
native  dress  and  headgear.  Hanging  between  two  trees  are  the 
head  and  shoulder  of  a  man  roasting  over  a  fire.  In  the  distance  on 
the  sea  are  two  ships.  In  the  foreground  are  three  warriors,  two 
children  playing,  and  a  mother  nursing  another.  In  the  back- 
ground are  a  man  and  a  woman  making  love,  and  beside  them 
is  another  figure  engaged  in  making  a  meal  off  a  human  arm,  while 
a  younger  one  looks  on." 

The  catalogue  is  illustrated  by  a  photo-process  facsimile  of  the  print,  in 
reduced  size,  which  shows  below  the  picture  four  lines  of  description  in  Ger- 
man, not  cut  in  the  wood,  but  printed  from  metal  type,  in  these  words: 

"Disc  figur  anzaigt  vns  das  volck  vnd  insel  die  gefunden  ist  durch 
den  christenlichen  kiinig  zii  Portigal  oder  von  seinen  vnderthonen. 
Die  leiit  sind  also  nacket  hiibsch.  braun  wolgestalt  von  leib.  ir  heiibter. 
1 1  halsz.  arm.  scham.  fiisz.  frawen  vnd  mann  ain  wenig  mit  federn  be- 
deckt.  Auch  haben  die  mann  in  iren  angesichten  vnd  brust  vid  [sic  for 
vil]  edel  gestain.  Es  hat  auch  nyemantz  nichts  sunder  sind  alle  ding 
gemain.  1|  Vnnd  die  mann  habendt  weyber  welche  in  gefallen.  es  sey 
mutter,  schwester  oder  freiindt.  darjnn  haben  sy  kain  vnderschayd. 
Sy  streyten  auch  mit  einander.  Sy  essen  auch  ainander  selbs  die  er- 
schlagen  1|  werden.  vnd  hencken  das  selbig  fieisch  in  den  ranch.  Sy 
werden  alt  hundert  vnd  fiintzig  iar.     Vnd  haben  kain  regiment." 


4  THE  NEW  YORK  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 

The  translation  into  English,  as  it  is  given  in  Henry  Stevens's  American 
Bibliographer,  No.  1,  January,  1854,  page  8,  is  as  follows: 

"This  figure  represents  to  us  the  people  and  island  which  have 
been  discovered  by  the  Christian  King  of  Portugal  or  by  his  subjects. 
The  people  are  thus  naked,  handsome,  brown,  well  shaped  in  body, 
their  heads,  necks,  arms,  private  parts,  feet  of  men  and  women  are  a 
little  covered  with  feathers.  The  men  also  have  many  precious  stones 
in  their  faces  and  breasts.  No  one  also  has  anything,  but  all  things 
are  in  common.  And  the  men  have  as  wives  those  who  please  them, 
be  they  mothers,  sisters,  or  friends,  therein  make  they  no  distinction. 
They  also  fight  with  each  other.  They  also  eat  each  other  even  those 
who  are  slain,  and  hang  the  flesh  of  them  in  the  smoke.  They  be- 
come a  hundred  and  fifty  years  old.     And  have  no  government." 

This  translation,  with  two  slight  variations,  is  reprinted  word  for  word 
in  the  Sotheby  catalogue,  from  the  Puttick  and  Simpson  catalogue  of  May  24, 
1854,  to  be  mentioned  further  on.  At  the  Phillipps  sale  this  lot  was  bought 
by  Quaritch  for   £470. 

There  is  an  interesting  story  connected  with  this  leaf,  which  goes  back 
to  the  time  of  its  coming  into  the  hands  of  Henry  Stevens,  in  London,  in 
December  1850.  A  writer  in  the  Tx)ndon  Times  Literary  Supplement  of 
October  17,  1919,  suggests  that  Stevens  obtained  it  from  the  auction  sale  of 
the  Valentia  library  at  Lord  Mountnorris's  [not  "Mountmorres's"  as  printed 
in  the  Tiiiies^  residence,  Arley  Castle,  on  December  6,  1852,  an  account  of 
which  is  given  in  Stevens's  "Recollections  of  Mr.  James  Lenox,"  p.  167-174, 
and  he  refers  to  lot  1070  of  the  catalogue,  consisting  of  a  "Collection  of 
Voyages"  in  one  volume,  and  among  the  various  contents  enumerated  was 
one  called  "Description  of  the  Braselians,"  and  this  lot  was  purchased  by 
Pickering  for  Henry  Stevens  at  £18. 10s.  This  theory  of  its  source,  how- 
ever plausible  it  may  seem,  is  disproved  by  the  following  extracts  from 
Stevens's  letters  to  Mr.  Lenox,  while  the  latter  was  in  France  and  Italy,  in 
1850-51,  two  years  before  the  Mountnorris  sale  took  place. 

Writing  on  Nov.  30,  1850,  he  adds  in  a  postscript:  "I  am  expecting  any 
day  a  block  book  about  1496  relating  to  America ! !  It  represents  the  Indians. 
I  am  all  excitement  to  see  it.  I  hope  this  swan  will  not  prove  a  goose.  If  it 
comes  in  time  I  will  take  it  to  you." 

Again,  on  Dec.  24,  1850,  he  writes:  — "I  am  glad  you  are  coming  soon 
to  London.  I  shall  have  very  many  curious  things  to  show  you.  Among 
which  is  the  Block  book  relating  to  America.  There  is  no  mistake  about  it. 
It  is  here  &  is  genuine,  relating  to  Brazil,  somewhere  from  1497  to  1515. 
Mr.  Jones  of  the  Museum  says  it  is  the  most  curious  thing  of  the  kind  he  ever 
saw.  Mr.  Panizzi  is  very  desirous  to  have  it  for  the  Museum.  But  he  cannot 
have  it.     I  am  having  it  engraved  for  my  work." 


WOOD  ENGRAVING  ILLUSTRATING  SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDIANS  5 

In  his  next  letter,  dated  from  Morley's  Hotel,  London,  Jan.  26,  1851, 
he  gives  more  details:  —  "The  Block  hook  about  America  is  all  my  fancy 
painted  it,  and  has  excited  much  curiosity  here.  I  have  had  an  accurate  fac- 
simile of  it  cut  in  wood,  and  hand  you  enclosed  one  of  the  five  proofs  I  have 
had  taken  off.  I  do  not  intend  to  part  with  either  the  original  or  a  single  proof 
of  it,  until  my  catalogue  is  out,  unless  I  am  driven  to  raise  money.  The 
original  has  five  or  six  lines  of  text  in  old  German  letters  explaining  the  cut. 
Altogether  I  look  upon  this  Zylography  as  one  of  the  most  curious  things  about 
the  early  discovery  of  America  that  has  ever  come  into  my  hands.  I  shall 
print  only  100  copies  of  my  forthcoming  catalogue  and  shall  give  in  it  this 
Blockhook  or  Block-sheet.  The  original  will  be  catalogued  at  £25.  I  have 
had  the  block  cut  for  my  Bihliographia  Americana,  but  shall  use  100  copies 
of  it  in  my  catalogue  which  I  hope  will  be  out  by  the  first  of  April." 

The  catalogue  mentioned  in  these  letters  as  in  preparation,  probably  was 
never  printed,  so  far  as  can  be  learned  from  Mr.  Stevens's  subsequent  letters 
to  Mr.  Lenox  in  1851,  1852,  and  1853.  Besides,  no  one  else  seemed  to  appre- 
ciate fully  the  importance  of  the  print,  and  it  remained  unsold  at  the  price  of 
£25.,  originally  affixed.  In  January,  1854,  Mr.  Stevens  described  it  biblio- 
graphically,  accompanied  by  a  folded  facsimile,  in  No.  1  of  his  American 
Bibliographer,  p.  7-8,  none  of  the  books  being  priced  in  this  list.  On  May 
24th  of  the  same  year,  it  appeared  in  an  auction  sale  of  Stevens's  books,  at 
Puttick  and  Simpson's,  as  lot  27  of  the  catalogue,  with  the  folded  facsimile 
plate,  and  was  bought  in  by  the  owner  at  £3.13.6.  Again  it  was  catalogued, 
with  the  price  reduced  to  £  12.12s.,  in  Stevens's  American  Nuggets  (London. 
1857,  reissued  as  Historical  Nuggets  in  1862),  as  no.  77,  but  without  effect- 
ing a  sale;  and  finally,  after  having  been  in  his  possession  eleven  years,  it  was 
sent  again  to  auction  at  Puttick  and  Simpson's  with  what  remained  unsold 
of  the  "Nuggets,''  and  appeared  as  no.  57  of  part  1  of  the  catalogue,  to  be 
sold  on  Jan.  23,  1861,  sale  postponed  to  March  6,  1861,  when  it  brought  £  15. 
15s.,  C.  J.  Stewart,  the  bookseller,  being  the  buyer. 

How  or  when  the  print  passed  into  the  possession  of  Sir  Thomas 
Phillipps,  has  not  been  definitely  determined.  There  is  a  strong  probability, 
however,  that  Stewart  was  acting  as  agent  for  Sir  Thomas  at  the  sale,  and 
bought  it  for  him.  Stewart  was  a  dealer  chiefly  in  theological  books,  and  it 
is  not  at  all  likely  that  he  would  have  speculated  on  his  own  account  in  a  pur- 
chase of  this  kind  at  fifteen  guineas.  At  any  rate,  from  the  date  of  this  sale 
in  March,  1861,  all  knowledge  of  the  whereabouts  of  the  print  seems  to  have 
been  lost,  until  its  reappearance  in  1919. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Henry  Harrisse  published  his  Bibliotheca  Ameri- 
cana Vetustissima  (New  York,  1866),  and,  under  the  year  1497,  he  copied 
for  his  no.  20,  the  inscription  and  description  as  given  in  Stevens's  American 


6  THE  NEW  YORK  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 

Bibliographer  and  Historical  Nuggets,  adding  for  its  location  ("British  Mu- 
seum"), on  what  authority  he  does  not  state.  This  error  as  to  location  was 
repeated  in  Justin  VVinsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America  (1885), 
vol.  ii,  p.  19,  where  it  is  made  still  worse  by  the  statement  that  "The  only  known 
copy  was  bought  in  London  at  auction  by  the  British  Museum  for  £3.13s.6d. 
in  1854." 

In  1886,  Henry  Stevens  published  his  Recollections  of  Mr.  James  Lenox, 
in  which  he  gives  on  p.  173-174,  a  brief  history  of  his  former  ownership  of 
the  print,  and  with  reference  to  the  assertions  of  Harrisse  and  Winsor  that  it 
was  in  the  Museum,  he  says:  "On  enquiry  at  the  British  Museum  in  October  and 
November  1885,  no  trace  of  this  remarkable  block-leaf  could  be  found,  and 
the  librarians  notwithstanding  this  cumulative  evidence  do  not  think  the  leaf 
ever  found  its  way  into  the  Library.  I  am  unable  now  to  trace  this  leaf  on 
account  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Stewart  and  the  discontinuance  of  his  business." 

When  the  print  turned  up  again  in  the  Phillipps  sale,  Winsor's  statement 
that  it  was  in  the  British  Museum  was  brought  forward  to  refute  the  claim 
of  the  cataloguer  that  this  copy  was  unique.  The  writer  of  the  article  entitled 
"The  Earliest  American  View,"  in  the  Times  Literary  Supplement  of  Oct.  17, 
1919,  says:  "Inquiry  was  again  made  at  the  British  Museum,  and  again,  after 
a  good  deal  of  searching,  the  leaf  was  found  not  to  be  in  the  Museum." 

Although  the  claim  has  been  made  that  the  picture  is  unique,  such  is  not 
the  fact,  there  being  another  copy  of  the  same  engraving  in  the  Konigliche  Hof- 
und  Staatsbibliothek  at  Munich.  In  1864,  Emil  Weller  published  at  Nordlingen 
his  supplementary  volume  to  Panzer's  Annalen  der  dltern  deutschen  Litteratur, 
with  the  title,  Repertoriiim  typographicmn.  Die  deutsche  Literatur  im  ersten 
Viertel  des  sechzehnten  Jahrhunderts.  Among  the  forty-one  publications  in 
the  German  language  described  in  this  book  under  the  year  1505,  the  follow- 
ing description  of  the  block  print  appears  on  page  35: 

317.  *Ohne  Ueberschrift.  Text  von  4  Z.  beginnt :  Dise  f igur  anzaigt  vns  das  volck 
vnd  insel  die  gefunden  ist  durch  den  cristenlichen  kiinig  zu  Portigal  oder  von  sein- 
en  vnderthonen. . . 

o.O.u.J.   (1505).     Querfolioblatt  mit  grossem  Holzsch.     (Insulaner). —  In 
Miinchen. 

This  copy  was  seen  by  Harrisse,  and  he  mentions  it  among  other  rarities  which 
he  examined  at  the  Royal  Library  in  Munich,  on  page  viii  of  the  introduction 
to  his  "Additions"  to  the  Dibliotheca  Americana  Vetustissima  (Paris,  1872). 
The  probable  date  of  the  print  is  1505,  that  being  the  year  in  which  the 
earliest  editions  appeared  of  the  German  version  of  the  Mundus  Novus  of 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  from  which  most  of  the  statements  in  the  long  inscription 
appear  to  be  taken.  This  account  of  the  expedition  to  Brazil  sent  out  in  May, 
1501,  by  the  Christian  King  of  Portugal,  is  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Lorenzo 


WOOD  ENGRAVING  ILLUSTRATING  SOUTH  AMERICAN  INDIANS  7 

Pietro  de  Medici,  and  was  printed  in  Latin  at  Paris  as  early  as  1504,  and  at 
Augsburg  in  1504.  The  German  translation  has  a  postscript  at  the  end  to  the 
effect  that  it  was  made  from  the  Latin  copy  received  from  Paris  in  May,  1505. 
It  has  the  following  title,  copied  from  one  of  the  four  editions  of  that  year: 

"Von  der  neu  gefunden  Region  die  wol  ein  ivelt  genent  mag  werden,  durch  den 
Cristenlichen  kiinig  von  portigal,  zvunderbarlich  erfunden."  (In  the  Lenox  collec- 
tion, Harrisse  no.  38.) 

The  account  of  the  native  Indians  takes  up  three  or  more  pages,  from 
which  the  following  passages  have  been  extracted,  in  their  exact  order,  and 
turned  into  English,  for  comparison  with  the  inscription  under  the  block-print: 

"They  go  naked,  both  men  and  women;  they  have  well-shaped 
bodies,  and  in  color  nearly  red;  they  bore  holes  in  their  cheeks,  lips, 
noses  and  ears,  and  stuff  these  holes  with  blue  stones,  crystals,  marble 
and  alabaster,  very  fine  and  beautiful.  This  custom  is  followed  alone 
by  the  men.  They  have  no  personal  property,  but  all  things  are  in 
common.  They  all  live  together  without  a  king  and  without  a  govern- 
ment, and  every  one  is  his  own  master.  They  take  for  wives  whom 
they  will,  the  son  the  mother,  the  brother  the  sister,  or  whomsoever 
they  first  meet,  and  in  all  this  they  have  no  rule.  They  also  war  wath 
each  other,  and  without  art  or  rule.  And  they  eat  one  another,  and 
those  they  slay  are  eaten,  for  human  flesh  is  a  common  food.  In  the 
houses  salted  human  flesh  is  hung  up  to  dry.  They  live  to  be  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  old,  and  are  seldom  sick," 

In  comparing  the  two  accounts  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  natives,  it  will 
be  noticed  that  there  is  no  mention  in  the  book  of  the  Indians  wearing  feathers 
on  different  parts  of  their  bodies.  Otherwise  there  is  so  close  a  resemblance 
that  it  seems  reasonable  to  infer  that  the  wording  of  the  inscription  of  the 
picture  was  derived  in  part  at  least  from  one  of  the  editions  of  the  book. 

The  print  possesses  peculiar  importance  as  an  early  —  if  not  the  earliest 
—  picture  of  American  Indians;  it  has  unusual  interest  as  a  specimen  of  illus- 
tration applied  to  events  of  the  day;  and  in  its  appearance,  disappearance,  reap- 
pearance, as  well  as  in  the  names  of  book  collectors  associated  with  it,  bears 
eloquent  testimony  to  the  fact  that  romance  has  not  entirely  deserted  the  path 
of  the  book  or  print  collector. 


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